


By the Glow of Christmas Lights

by rhysiana



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Christmas Lights, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Maximum Coziness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2019-02-12 14:33:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12961446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhysiana/pseuds/rhysiana
Summary: “Nurse.”“Poindexter.”“I realized there was a roommate thing we didn’t talk about before we moved in.”“Yeah? What’s that?”“How do you feel about holiday decorations?”A story about the unintended consequences of making one’s room as cozy as possible.





	By the Glow of Christmas Lights

**Author's Note:**

> A Tumblr prompt fill for the wonderful alocalband, who requested Nurseydex fluff. "Maybe just softly learning how to be roommates, or finally figuring out their feelings and realizing they've been dumb idiots in love the entire time." I dithered about what to write for it for so long it inadvertently became not-actually-Christmas seasonal fluff as well.

Nursey came back to the Haus the Monday after Thanksgiving feeling pretty good, only to have Dex turn very seriously toward him as soon as he came through the door to their room. “Nurse.”

He hadn’t left any clothes on the floor before class, so he had no idea what this was about. He nodded back warily. “Poindexter.”

“I realized there was a roommate thing we didn’t talk about before we moved in.”

Nursey relaxed slightly. Not his fault, then. “Yeah? What’s that?”

“How do you feel about holiday decorations?”

“Dude!” he said, throwing himself into his bed, already gesturing expansively. “I’m from Manhattan. The fact the entire campus isn’t covered in lights basically the day after Thanksgiving wounds me in my soul. I don’t even care that much about Christmas, but, like, how else are we supposed to survive the darkest part of winter without twinkly lights? It’s not right.”

“Oh thank god,” said Dex. He stood up and kicked the bed frame. “Come on.”

“Come on where?”

“Basement. Need to get a box.”

Nursey had just gotten nice and comfortable, but his curiosity dragged him out of bed again to follow Dex down the stairs. They were friends now, like, more than a solid 80% of the time, which was more than Nursey had ever thought would be possible back when they first met, but it was still rare for Dex to directly invite him to do something.

As it turned out, mostly what Dex needed Nursey for was to open doors for him while he carried what turned out to be a sizeable box back up to their room, XMAS CRAP written in bold Sharpie on the side.

“Okay,” Dex said, putting the box down and fishing his pocket knife out to cut the tape. “Here’s the major decision.” He looked over at Nursey, now perched on the edge of his bunk and trying not to look eager, though he suspected he was failing. “Do we put everything up right now, or do we do a little each day?”

“Are you kidding? We’ve got barely two weeks before finals. We have to put this all up _immediately_ , for maximum enjoyment.” He gave Dex the puppy dog eyes he knew Dex found particularly annoying. “The time change really bums me out, man.”

Dex rolled his eyes, as predicted. “You don’t have to convince me. I’m from even farther north than you, in case you forgot.” He started pulling things out of the box. “White lights or colored?”

Nursey frowned in thought. “Hmmmm. I dunno I mean, white lights are, like, classier, especially for outside, but colors are more fun. Warmer.”

“Colors it is.”

Nursey then forced himself to sit on his hands and not vibrate with impatience as Dex carefully plugged in every strand to check for dead bulbs and then started chaining the strands together. (“Don’t touch the plugs, I swear you’ll manage to find a way to short out the entire Haus.” “Hey! That was one time!”) But once the lights all seemed to be working, Dex handed Nursey a string and nodded at the bunk beds.

“You do those, and I’ll do the window.”

“Cool.” Nursey had a suspicion Dex was just trying to prevent Nursey from doing anything that would require standing on a chair, but turning his bed into the perfect cozy cave was _important_. Plus the rail around the edge of Dex’s bunk. And the sides of the ladder.

An hour later, Dex flipped off the overhead light, leaving only the glowing jewel-toned LEDs, and surveyed the room with satisfaction. He held up a fist and Nursey bumped it in agreement.

***

One unanticipated side effect of how awesome their room was, though, was how much time they spent in it now. Together.

Sure, Chowder joined them a lot, too, usually after dinner, but Nursey hadn’t previously realized how much his and Dex’s schedules overlapped, or how much time he’d spent in the library or Dex in the computer lab. But now Nursey was far more inclined to bring his book haul back to the room and spread it out on his bed, and Dex seemed far more content lately to do his debugging by the glow of the lights around the window over his desk.

They had a playlist of holiday/winter instrumental music now. For studying in the room. They didn’t argue about it at all.

And they just kind of seemed to know now when the other was ready for a break. It turned out they both kind of liked British mystery series on Netflix because their parents had watched Masterpiece Mystery growing up, and while they’d both thought it was super boring as kids, it was good now.

It was when Nursey lured Dex into a comparative discussion of Miss Marple adaptations that he knew something was going on, though. Because he’d just compared it to the various Austen adaptations and _Dex had known what he was talking about_. Like, agreed with Nursey’s points, and remembered a thing Nursey had said over a week ago and brought it back up, and then added a thing he remembered from his freshman English course.

Dex listened to him. Not just tolerated him. Listened to him.

Nursey sat in the glowing cave of the lower bunk while he had the revelation that he was completely fucked, and then had the second revelation as they started the next episode of _Inspector Lewis_ that he didn’t mind. Because unlike past sudden realizations of crushes, he just… kept talking to Dex. Because so what if he had a crush? Here, in their room, it just made him feel something warm in his chest, and he still wanted to know what Dex thought about, well, whatever they were talking about. It didn’t really matter.

Apparently it was possible to get drunk on coziness, though, or at least that’s what it felt like, because the next thing he knew, he heard himself comment, out loud, _to Dex_ , on Lawrence Fox’s hotness. And then, when it was entirely too late, he froze, cursing himself for _not_ being uncomfortable around Dex after all. He looked to the side and started toying with the nearest string of lights. Maybe it would finally short out and electrocute him.

But Dex just sank down a little further into the pillows he’d piled behind him and looked over at Nursey with a sideways smile. “Yeah? You got something for tall, lanky guys, Nurse?”

Nursey felt his eyes widen, and he swallowed. “Uh, well, yeah. Sarcastic ones. Who play the guitar.”

“Hmmm.”

They watched Inspector Lewis and DS Hathaway find a clue.

“So,” Dex said casually a few minutes later, fingers plucking at the blanket between them, “does that mean you think I should bring my guitar back after break?”

Nursey reached out and covered Dex’s hand with his own. “Yeah. That’d be chill.”

And then he was laughing as Dex basically tackled him back onto the rest of the pillows.

“Chill?! I’ll show you chill!”

Nursey never did remember how that episode ended. The memory of making out with Dex in a warm cocoon of Christmas lights, hands tangled in Dex’s flannel shirt, was much better.

**Author's Note:**

> I [Tumbl](https://rhysiana.tumblr.com).


End file.
